A Week in The Netherlands

This week, I'll be in The Netherlands for the first time since my visit in 2009. I was invited that first time by Marc Rouppe van der Voort to visit St. Elisabeth Hospital (where he worked at the time) and to speak at a conference. This is where I first heard about their concept of Lean as “loving care,” as I blogged about here.

During this visit, I'm speaking at a different Lean conference on Wednesday (and thanks to the sponsors for bringing me there). I also get to ride in a “Lean-mousine” for the first time ever! How creative. I'm sure that will be fun. An attendee is apparently getting the opportunity to talk Lean with me in the Lean-mousine for 15 minutes. I'm not sure if we'll be adding the “waste of transportation” to the mix, but I hope the discussion adds value.

While I'm Holland, I am going to have another chance to visit St. Elisabeth with my friend and microbiologist Peter Kabel. I'm also going to get to spend a day at Marc's new hospital. And, there's a networking gathering on Monday night with people from different hospitals and our KaiNexus partners in Holland, NextChange.

I will try to post updates when I can, but I also have a few guest posts scheduled for this week that I think you'll enjoy.

You can also read some previous posts about Lean in The Netherlands and guest posts written by my friends and colleagues there, including:

• Healthcare Kaizen in The Netherlands
• Kaizen and Passion

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Disclosure: I'm a senior advisor to KaiNexus.

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